Exhibition producer Takayuki Nagatomo said visitors started to line up in front of the pavilion’s entrance as soon as it opened.

“I spoke to some of the visitors, and many of them said the pavilion was ‘amazing,’” Nagatomo said. “When I asked them questions to find out what made them feel that way, they appeared to like the way they could learn about Japan’s characteristic culture and history and the hands-on nature.”

“The Japan pavilion’s exhibits are designed to pay attention to individual visitors, and I think that’s what made it perceived favorably,” he said.

At the pavilion, a smartphone is loaned to each visitor. They walk around and see a series of six scenes with the phone in hand. While they do so, data indicating the aspects of Japan that are attracting their interest are collected and analyzed. Using that information, a tailored final scene is created for the particular visitors who are present in the facility that day. In other words, the pavilion offers a one-of-a-kind experience. This is the first time this has ever been featured at the Japan pavilion. The exhibits use augmented reality audio technology and support multiple languages that visitors can choose from. Spoken explanations are provided in a consistent tone throughout the series of scenes, which together form a carefully coordinated story, ensuring visitors have a satisfying experience.

“I asked Ochiai to pay attention to highlighting the aspects of Japanese culture through video presentation,” Nagatomo said. “Each scene incorporated inputs from discussions involving many creators, but I think Ochiai’s role of coordinating the process was the key to raising the quality of presentation at the Japan pavilion.”

During the preparation stage, a key challenge was to design the presentation in a way that made the concept of the Japan pavilion simple and easy to understand for visitors from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The pavilion’s exhibits are not intended to impress visitors about how great Japan is. The aim is to present Japan’s history, culture and issues, ask visitors to think of what they can do for the world, and then encourage them to take action.

On the special website, Junkan: Where ideas meet,* visitors are encouraged to use a smartphone to enter a “message for the future,” such as, “I will take an eco-bag with me wherever I go to help solve the waste problem,” for example. Messages will continue to be added during the expo and will be used at Osaka-Kansai Japan Expo 2025. This is a strategy that takes advantage of Japan being host for the next expo.

* People anywhere in the world can post and share messages on the Junkan website (https://expo-junkan.go.jp/).

Question: In recent years, an established trend has been for world expos to adopt a theme of fighting issues on a global scale. In your view, what role should the expos play?

Sacko: The world expo has created opportunities for people to dream or think of the way they live by presenting aspects of a possible future society as though they are part of a fictional work.

We are in an age in which countries are deepening interdependency in terms of economy, not just initiatives to fight climate change, or food and resource issues. This, I believe, makes it all the more important for us to have a common understanding of issues by getting together in the same space at the same time.

Question: Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan, will feature the concept “People’s Living Lab,” which brings together technologies and ideas that can help create the smart society envisioned by the Japanese government.

How can we take advantage of Kansai’s regional characteristics?

Sacko: The world expo is not just about showing off the latest technologies. I think it’s a good idea for an expo to prominently feature a communication style unique to the region that hosts it, reflecting the regional culture as well as geographical and climatic features.

What I mean by “communication style” is, for example, the typical way Osakans are able to close the distance with others and their love of festive atmospheres, which impressed me greatly when I first came to Japan. My view is based on the belief that the first step in addressing global issues is to deepen people’s mutual understanding through personal communication.

If each visitor experiences a major exhibit at an expo separately, it remains a relationship between a machine and a human being. It will be of value only when visitors share the experience with others.

To me, Japan and Kansai are synonymous. People of Osaka appear curious to learn about others. For example, when I am eating by myself at a restaurant, a stranger may talk to me, asking things like “You like it, huh?” So, I personally hope to see an expo feature Kansai-style communication and that it will promote interactions across national and generational boundaries through exchanges starting with locals asking, “Hey, is that machine fun?” or “Wow, your country has things like this?”

My image of the expo is a bazaar where everybody talks as much as they want about the latest technologies rather than creating a “People’s Living Lab” for the future society.

Question: So, you think warm Kansai-style interactions are not entirely unrelated to this expo’s theme of “Designing Future Society for Our Lives”?

Sacko: That’s correct. I understand the expo is envisioned as an opportunity to present Japan as it faces an aging society, but medical technology is not the only thing that can save lives.

When people suffer from diseases of mind or body, there are many factors that can cause suffering, including a feeling of isolation from an inability to interact with others and the collapse of a regional community.

In either case, a communication issue is typically at the root of the problem.

What spaces can do

Question: We have heard that your specialty, spatial anthropology, is based on the view that urban planning and home development can be realized through the usage of community spaces.

What role do you think the world expo should play from the academic perspective, considering that it is an occasion where people from around the world gather for a limited period?

Sacko: I have studied the role a physical space can play from the viewpoint of individuals and society.

Expo pavilions are created within the restrictions of the designs or comprehensive plans that countries and businesses have fleshed out according to their respective themes. However, my interest is rather in how you may create a space that is public or shared by people.

There are several viewpoints on how you may create a space that is conducive to more active communication.

Question: Can you elaborate on that?

Sacko: When someone occupies a space, it is typically the result of negotiation, so it is not necessary to divide it equally in a visible way from the beginning.

A research team I belonged to at Kyoto University studied the relationship between Kyoto residents and their next-door neighbors defined by how much area they covered during uchimizu (a popular practice of sprinkling water over the road in front of the house to cool the temperature).

We found that if the splash reached the section of road in front of their next-door neighbors’ house, then the residents typically included those next-door neighbors within their sense of the term, uchira (us). If they made sure the water didn’t reach the front of their neighbors’ house, then they called them achira-san (them). That indicated use of words reflected their behavior.

Yumeshima is an artificial island in Osaka Bay. It is partially used as a logistics center, but the rest remains a vast, empty landfill site. It is exciting to speculate how the site will be transformed. This project — akin to painting on a blank canvas — is set to begin.

In the meantime, full-scale efforts are being made to prepare for the 2020 Expo in Dubai, which precedes Expo 2025.

Triggering change

World expos and innovation go hand in hand. In fact, such expositions have often gone beyond their role of showcasing technologies and products that symbolize the coming future and served as a trigger, changing lifestyles and values, and inspiring businesses to innovate.

“The 1970 expo helped change the way people think about uniforms, which until then were regarded as nothing more than functional office clothing,” said Jinko Nakahara of the Tokyo uniform section at Toray Industries Inc.’s uniform and advanced textiles department. “It had an impact strong enough to radically change the landscape inside offices.”

Toray supplied the uniforms for attendants at the 1970 Osaka Expo’s corporate pavilions. The company is now designing uniforms for the Japan pavilion attendants at the Dubai Expo that opens in October. Toray is in the final phase of working out a way to realize the worldview of Kunihiko Morinaga, a young, internationally active fashion designer in charge of the Anrealage brand, using the company’s sophisticated functional materials.

Additionally, Toray aims to showcase an image of a company that uses innovative technology and sophisticated materials to overcome global challenges, such as maintaining economic growth while ensuring sustainability at the same time.

“A company in an upstream industry like ours is barely visible to general consumers,” Suguru Asai, Toray’s Tokyo uniform section manager, said. “That’s why it’s important to use this expo as an opportunity for delivering ideas about society in the future and our company goals.”

He continued: “When we were previously involved in supplying the uniforms for the Japanese pavilion at the 2015 expo in Milan, we focused on advanced materials that achieve both functionality and ease of use, and provided uniforms made of the most advanced textiles available at the time. These materials are now widely used in clothing that people wear daily.”